As we’ve been learning, autumn is the season of the Lung. Our lungs breathe for us whether we’re paying attention to them or not, but if we want to keep them healthy we need to breathe with them more consciously.

We update our wardrobe as the weather cools, pulling out sweaters first, then the scarves, the hats, and the big puffy coats. We do this to stay warm, but there’s actual protection and prevention in the act of covering up.

If you’ve worked with a Chinese medicine physician AT ALL, you’ve likely encountered our emphatic recommendation that you eat mostly warm, cooked foods. Why is this so important?

In autumn, we watch the outside environment dry out, cool off, and move inward; our human bodies are doing the same. If our aim is good health and resiliency, it’s important to acknowledge these seasonal changes and make adjustments to our own diet and lifestyle, accordingly.

Movement is life. Day turns into night, season into season, youth into age. Internally, there is the movement of breath, blood, lymph, food, waste, hormones, nervous impulses, cellular activity, the rhythm of our lungs, the beating of our hearts. All of these need to stay in motion to maintain a healthy, well-functioning organism…

I talk a lot in clinic about your “constitution.” This is the baseline set of traits you came in with, the stuff you don’t have a lot of control over…